‘Frogs in the boiling water’: The Amazon-FTC case and the myth of ad auction transparency

For digital ad buyers, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Amazon’s on-platform search advertising business appears to be a tempest in a teapot. Marketers have not been panicking and haranguing their agencies for information on the e-commerce giant’s shifty ad auction dynamics, according to agency executives. “No one has necessarily come to me concerned or asking hard-hitting questions. It’s still business as usual overall,” said one agency executive. “Business as usual” is an apt description for Amazon’s auction dynamics under FTC scrutiny. What the FTC has flagged Amazon for seems to be a gross violation of digital…

This is a curated summary. The full story was reported by Digiday.